


how i became the sea

by unwieldyink



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, also nico runs a lighthouse, mermaid au, merman!will, or well merman but whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwieldyink/pseuds/unwieldyink
Summary: "Nico’s legs were tucked into gaps of the lighthouse’s railing, dangling over the ocean below. He rested his head on the rail as well, letting himself get lost in the rippling ocean before him. If only he could get himself a little boat, one with a nice sturdy sail on it, and get lost in the horizon in person as well as in mind."Merman Will & Lighthouse Keeper Nico AU
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Hazel Levesque, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 10
Kudos: 81





	how i became the sea

**Author's Note:**

> u h h h h h h h yeah  
> this is set in like 1800s era i guess? so some of the language might be a bit flowery because i tend to do that when writing stories that took place during like. victorian times.  
> also i don't know if this will ever be finished but hey if you have some ideas for where to take it next let me know! i might do them!

Nico had been looking at the bright blue sky for so long, it almost seemed like he was about to drift away into it.

The waves crashed on the shore in a steady, heavy beat beneath him, but they were nothing but background noise when he was so high up. No, the top of the lighthouse was for more than the immature waves. It was for the two stretches of blue, those vast expanses of nothingness, coming to meet right at the horizon. The sky and the sea.

Nico’s legs were tucked into gaps of the lighthouse’s railing, dangling over the ocean below. He rested his head on the rail as well, letting himself get lost in the rippling ocean before him. If only he could get himself a little boat, one with a nice sturdy sail on it, and get lost in the horizon in person as well as in mind. Or Nico wouldn’t mind working his way up on one of those big boats too, starting out with scrubbing the deck while saltwater sloshed up onto it, wind rustling his hair. Charming his way up the ranks until, eventually, he commanded a whole ship of his own.  _ Captain Nico _ . It had been his dream ever since he was a child.

But no boat ever seemed to want to take him. An orphan, with no experience fighting or sailing or pillaging or anything? What good would he be?

Nico had begged a few to let him come aboard, promised that he would be diligent and learn quickly all the skills he currently lacked. But they had no time for teaching.

So, since Nico couldn’t find his way onto the sea itself, he settled for the next best thing. He knocked on the door of the dreary old lighthouse, right where the outskirts of town met the shore, and faced a man so old Nico thought for a second he was seeing a corpse reanimated.

“Hello,” the old man said, his face stretching into a smile.

“I want to man the lighthouse,” Nico replied, his voice unwavering and confident. “I don’t know how, but I’m willing to learn.”

The man’s smile broadened. “Please, come in.”

That was when he was twelve years old. The old man was gone now, his grave nestled next to the lighthouse and marked by the stone Nico had carved himself. Nico had been running the lighthouse alone for years. He knew her better than any person, knew what she liked and what made her fickle. It was lonely work, lighting up the shore and guiding ships to safety, but Nico loved his lighthouse and the sea, and that was all that mattered.

Still, on occasion, he let himself gaze off into the horizon, and fantasize that a captain would be pulled to his shores, and be so captivated by Nico’s diligence to the lighthouse that he would beg Nico to join his crew. And off Nico would go, off to gallivant and explore.

He sighed, straining his eyes on the horizon for incoming ships one last time, and then stood. He had work to do.

.

Darkness had fallen onto the shore, but Nico’s lighthouse burned bright, slicing through the raging storm outside. Rain and wind and waves joined together to create a monster of a storm, one that would surely sink ships if they couldn’t find land-- the time when Nico’s job was most important. He was still drenched from ensuring the light was still burning, and had just descended the long staircase to the light. He rubbed a towel in his hair and sat on a cushion, preparing for a long night. Suddenly, a  _ thunk _ against the outside of the lighthouse caught his attention. There it went again.  _ Thunk _ .  _ Thunk _ .  _ Thunk _ . Almost in time with the lapping of the monstrous waves.

Nico ran to the window, peering outside to see that the wind had tugged a tarp on the outside loose. It flailed wildly in the storm, hitting the side of the lighthouse as well as anything else in its vicinity. Nico cursed under his breath, tugging his cap over his head and heading out to pull the thing down.

The rope wasn’t coming down easy. As soon as Nico grabbed it, he was playing tug-of-war with mother nature. The wind pulled the rope on the tarp up towards the sky, pushing it against the lighthouse again and again. Nico held fast on it with two steady hands and pulled down, as hard as he could, as long as he could.

The rain was heavy, pouring down in sheets on Nico’s head, and the wind whipped his already unruly hair into his face mercilessly. So there was no way, no way, for him to see the rope fray. But fray it did. The harder Nico tugged, the more the rope came apart, stretching more, and more, and more, until--  _ snap! _ The sudden give of the snapped rope sent Nico stumbling backwards, the momentum he’d built up on the rope now acting on him. At the same moment, by chance, a bout of heavy rain slammed down upon him, pushing him back more and keeping him from catching his balance. Before Nico could even comprehend that the rope had snapped, the wind and rain tossed him carelessly off the rocky cliff of the lighthouse, leaving him to crash violently into the water below.

The silence was so quick, Nico thought for a moment he was dead. How else could the wind and rain and mighty thunder be silenced all at once?

But no, no, he wasn’t dead. Not yet. He was merely underwater, the sounds of the storm muffled by the ocean now above as well as below. The gentle gurgling of rising bubbles almost lulled him to sleep. A bright yellow light blazed above the surface; not the sun, but Nico’s lighthouse.  _ My lighthouse _ , Nico thought.  _ My girl. Bring me home. _

Nico thought he might be delirious from the saltwater burning in his lungs, for in his drowsy semi-consciousness, he could almost see the arms of his lighthouse, that he had loved and cared for so well, reaching into the water to save him in return.

Except, his lighthouse had no arms. Nor a chest or a face. And the figure looming over him had all three. Though his golden hair shone as bright as the light atop Nico’s lighthouse, he realized now it was only reflecting the lighthouse’s gleam. The boy grabbed Nico by the shoulders, pulling him close to his bare chest, and they, together, began to float up to the shore.

Nico was still barely conscious, barely alive, yet he managed to look down and see that the thing propelling them to the surface was a tail, blue and bright, that seemed to make up the boy’s lower half. It cut cleanly through the water, muscles straining for additional acceleration as the two figures ascended.

Perhaps Nico  _ was  _ dying, then. Perhaps this was his angel, come to collect him.

Or perhaps not. Because when they broke the surface, Nico was thrown right back into the world he knew, nothing but wind and rain and chaos. The water was choppy, submerging Nico over and over, but he barely noticed. He slumped against the strangers chest, who fought against a riptide to drag Nico to land.

The stranger hauled Nico onto the sand, laying him down right at the point where the waves wouldn’t pull him back to sea. He leaned down to press his lips to Nico’s ear, whispering something beyond Nico’s comprehension. As soon as he did, Nico’s eyes snapped open. He doubled over, coughing, his lungs suddenly desperate to expel the saltwater stuck in them. The stranger leaned away from Nico, hovering just long enough for Nico to memorize his features before disappearing back into the raging ocean.

The bizarreness of the situation was not lost on Nico, but as soon as the stranger disappeared, the wind and the rain overtook Nico’s mind once again. He was beginning to shiver from his dip in the icy ocean, and he knew if he didn’t get inside soon the stranger’s rescue would mean nothing. Nico fought his way up the rocks, struggling against the storm, until he finally reached the lighthouse door.

He stumbled in, locked the door tight, and collapsed on his bed, desperately trying to convince himself that this wasn’t all a dream.


End file.
